"How many of you — someone from your family — married somebody of the same sex?" Mr. Jackson asked of the congregation of about 500. After nobody raised a hand, he asked, "Then how did that get in the middle of the agenda?"

"If your issues are cancer and Medicare and education and jobs and Social Security and decent housing, then how did someone else put their agenda in the front of the line?" he asked.

Following him a few minutes later, Mr. Kerry urged his audience to try to ignore diversions from the issues Mr. Jackson had mentioned.

"All they're going to do is attack and attack and try and divert, and push some hot button that has nothing to do with the quality of your life on a daily basis," the senator from Massachusetts said.

And, I've heard of demonizing your opponents, but I always thought that was in a figurative sense:

[Kerry] appeared at yesterday's service with Mr. Jackson and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas; Rep. Kendrick B. Meek of Florida; Mr. Meek's mother, former Rep. Carrie Meek; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who campaigned against Mr. Kerry for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"He's fighting against liars and demons," Mrs. Meek said.

The article does not mention if Kerry disagreed with the characterization of Republicans as "demons." Then there's the usual hyperbole:

Mr. Kerry told the congregation he is taking steps to allay the grievance of many Florida blacks that their votes were not counted in 2000.
"Never again will a million African-Americans be denied their right to exercise their vote in the United States of America," he said.

Why only a million? Why not a billion, or a trillion, if you're going to make up numbers out of thin air?